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Wednesday, 5 December 2012

A Year In Provence

Or more accurately a week in Southampton.

I'm spending the week on a training course in Southampton. Its the first time I've spent this amount of time away from home since I transitioned. Its also the first opportunity I've had to be myself where people don't know me as anyone but Jenna and to see how they react.

I've got limited Internet access so I'm going to post as I can. This is part 1.

Southampton 2nd to 7th
December 2012

Sunday

What a journey it was to get down here.
To start with the hire car is one of those that has a key that you
put into a slot on the dashboard. Once its inserted then you can
press down on the clutch while pushing the key right into the slot in
order to start the engine. The car doesn't have a traditional
handbrake, instead you press down on the brake while pushing a switch
on the console near the gear-stick. Its not too bad once you get the
hang of it, and aren't panicking because the car has stalled or
something like that.

The actual journey was OK until I
reached Southampton. At that point things started to go adrift
because the satnav told me that I'd arrived at my destination while I
was still on the M27. Exiting the motorway at the next exit and
heading into Southampton before stopping to reset the satnav so it
would find the hotel was called for which even then lead to a
roundabout trip as I managed to miss the exit on a roundabout and
found myself back on the motorway.

The hotel is some distance from the
venue where I'll be doing my ISTQB Advanced Test Analyst course.
Hopefully I'll be able to find the place without too much trouble
tomorrow.

At the moment its just before 10
o'clock, its raining again. I've not been out of my room since I got
here. Tomorrow I'll be eating in the restuarant so I'll probably have
a couple of drink in the bar as well.

I've got quite a bit of reading to
catch up this week, in addition to any homework we get from the
course. Reading wont be the only thing that I do though as I've
brought a couple of my fans with me. I've already spent aa bit of
time this evening working out the timings for my True Love routine
and have gone through that a couple of times. Its not a complicated
routine, neither is it very long (about 3 minutes 15 seconds in fact)
so by the end of the week I should have it in a state that I can
start jazzing it up and making it more of a performance.

Anyway, its 10 o'clock now and time to
get ready for bed.

Monday

First day of the course done.

Last night I didn't sleep all that
well. I usually don't when I'm staying in a hotel, the bed usually
takes a few days to get used to as well as all the different noises.
I was eventually awake by about 5:30 this morning but sat in bed
reading my bible, something I haven't done for a while.

Just after 6 I started getting myself
ready for the day, by just after 7 I was ready to face the outside
world and heading for breakfast. I kept things simple this morning
and didn't eat a lot, come cereal and a small fried breakfast.

Just after 8 I set off for the course
venue in Ocean Village. It took me a while as the traffic was quite
hectic initially but thinned out as I got closer to my destination.
On arrival I was a bit worried as I didn't have much change for car
parking and all of the car parks in the area were pay and display. I
parked the hire car in the nearest car park and popped into the
reception of the Innovation Centre to see if they could tell me the
best place to park. Fortunately they have their own parking spaces to
the rear of the building so I was able to leave the car there.

The course was interesting, there are
only four of us plus the course tutor. He looked familiar and it
wasn't until I got back to the hotel and checked the notes for
another course that I did a while back that I realised that he was
the one who had done that course.

The one thing that I'm definitely going
to remember the course for is hazelnut coffee. The drinks machine
uses pouches containing the drink that you want, there is a few
things to choose from but I've settled on the hazelnut coffee option.
I've drunk so much of it that I can still taste it even after a
couple of glasses of wine. I think I might be getting addicted to it.

The trip back to the hotel was equally
hectic but I didn manage to get into the hotel without having to do a
roundabout journey this time.

A bit of revision and the obligatory
phone call to the family and it was time for dinner.

The restaurant was heaving, I had to
wait about 15 minutes before I got a table even though I had booked.
The waiter that seated me was really nice and kept updating me on
what was going on and checked to see if I'd ordered my meal and how
long it would be.

I'd chosen to have duck breast with
potato Anna. The duck tasted lovely, there could have been a bit more
food though. Next time I'll know to order a side dish!

Some people do like to complain and the
chap that was seated before me, after he had been served his meal and
had pointed out to the waiter that there was some mushrooms missing,
said "this place is like Fawlty Towers." It wasn't that
bad!

Today has been a good day. I've not had
any issues with people. The staff are well trained, I had a smile
from one of the waitresses in response to a smile I gave her. My
waiter addressed me as Ms. On the way to dinner I rode up in the lift
with an older gentleman who stepped aside to allow me into the lift
and then when he got out in front of me apologised saying that he
should have let me out first.

I'd say that today was a passing day.

Tuesday

Second day of the course. The restaurant was a bit busier yesterday morning. Had some fruit to
start but it felt very unladylike trying to cut through chunks of
pineapple, apple and melon with a spoon with people around. Don't
think I'll go for that option again. Will probably go back to cereal
or skip that and have a couple of pastries after my full English.
Missed my favourite of button mushrooms though as they didn't have
any out when I went to get mine.

Drive to Ocean Village was as busy as
on Monday but I did arrive early, in fact I was first to arrive, the
other girl on the course was second.

The receptionist greeted me when I
arrived. She's very friendly and very smartly dressed. I like her.

The course went well as we got through
all of the material easily which allowed us to get back to our hotels
to do some revision on our own. I worked through some examples and
then left it at that as I wanted to have an early dinner so I could
have a bath and watch some television.

On the way back to the hotel I popped
into the Asda Hypermarket at Eastleigh. I'd forgotten just how big
they could be. I wandered around as quickly as I could picking up a
notepad, some Pringles, chocolate digestives, a bottle of Pinot
Grigio (hotel drinks are extortionate, over 6 pounds for a small
glass of wine, 9 pounds for a larger one, the bottle from Asda was
only 5 pounds) and a bottle of what I thought was Jim Beam bourbon
which turned out to be a black cherry bourbon drink. Very nice, very
drinkable and after one very large glass will be going in my case to
take home.

I noticed last night that I've been
forgetting to slap on my hormone gels. So made doubly sure that I'd
remember to do it before I went to bed and when I got up in the
morning.

Dinner was a lot quieter than Monday
evening. The restaurant wasn't as busy at 7 when I went down. Service
was great. Food was even better. I went for belly of pork with black
pudding and potatoes followed up by vanilla and strawberry crème
brulee with a shortbread biscuit and Chantilly cream.

While I'd been eating a nice looking
American had been sat at the table next to me. As I was eating my
dessert he asked if it was good, to which I put my hand on my tummy
and replied yes. His dinner arrived at that point and as I'd finished
mine I left him to it and we didn't chat any more. If I was more
confident with my voice and appearance it would have been nice to
chat some more.

I am meeting lots of different people,
not just staff here but also other guests and I'm not getting any
negative reactions so I'm happy.

After dinner I enjoyed a relaxing bath,
finished my Jim Beam and had a couple of small glasses of wine in my
room while reading my books, Coming Up Next by one of my favourite
television presenters Penny Smith. I've had the book for a while and
haven't got round to reading it. Now that I've started I can't put it
down and will have finished it before too long. Oh well, will have to
get her next book.

Wednesday

Finally finished my book this morning.
Nothing to read now.

I've missed a couple of the programmes
that we normally watch this week. Although I've got a TV in my room
the things that I'd usually watch with the rest of the family like
Grimm and Elementary are on satellite channels and not Freeview.

The course went well today. It was
about a couple of testing techniques and once you understood what was
involved they weren't too bad.

I chatted to the receptionist at the
innovation centre when I got there this morning. Both of us have
daughters. Her oldest is between Rhys' age how old Kayleigh would
have been this year. It was a nice chat as both being parents we had
things in common.

Weather today has been chilly, not as
cold as yesterday when the car was iced over, so glad that I brought
de-icer with me.

Two more days to go before the course
is over and I head back home. Will be nice to have all the things
that I take for granted when at home available to me. Even if is my
last weekend before I have to start training for the Outlaw next
year!

Spoke with the family using Skype earlier. So much easier than simply using the phone and better than Windows Live Messenger. Everyone was OK.

More to come at the end of the week, or tomorrow if I manage to write up a post before I lose my Internet access.